A Likeness
by Jinhito
Summary: She thinks, to love Sasuke, is to accept everything that he is... everything that he selfishly hoards, everything that he willingly shares, and every little thing that he has ever done up until now.
1. One

**Title:** A Likeness  
**Chapter:** One  
**Author's Note: **none

----

She thinks, to love Sasuke, is to accept everything that he is... everything that he selfishly hoards, everything that he willingly shares, and every little thing that he has ever done up until now.

It's crazy the way that time changes people. It's makes even less sense when she considers how she wound up in this particular circumstance. Loving him the same way she thinks Naruto once did. Living with him like it was some commonplace thing for two strangers who didn't really know each other but were well onto working through that little complication together.

Hinata came of her own free will.

No one made her, he didn't ask her. She just showed up one fine afternoon, her small suitcase of personal effects in hand and he moved out of the open doorway to let her in. There were no questions asked, he didn't look at her in any other manner besides boredom, and maybe one comical expression of why she hadn't done this sooner.

But she had done it hadn't she? She was here now, and the reasons as to why or how she'd gotten here played little to no role in their lives. It just simply was and that was how it was going to be.

--

Sometime after Naruto's rather abrupt and now long since passed disappearance could have been the start of things, she's not particularly sure. But she does remember the day Sasuke came back. And of course it was only ironic that her once beloved's best friend come trotting back into town only weeks after he was no longer there.

No one knew what had caused Naruto to up and leave the village he spent his entire adolescence willing to protect. The place of his birth and his heritage, the strong burning fire any shinobi from Konoha held dear; Hinata had no words.

It was horribly cliché to say he was perfectly fine one day and the next he was marked as a missing nin, but that's just how it'd gone. She remembered every available soldier, every capable man and woman called to the Hokage's Tower to receive a briefing of his last known whereabouts, his behavior at the time, and lastly of his sentence.

If he were not to be found within the further utmost reaches of the Fire Country's surrounding borders, then he was to be considered a traitor and a possible threat to everyone else's safety. He was dangerous, not a kid anymore. His leaving without warning, without reason, but especially without permission was not allowed.

Tsunade's eyes had been hard when she explained the news to her shinobi. Hinata knew her heart was breaking.

But the immediate response teams had found nothing, no trace and no sign. Forty-eight hours went by and still nothing. Either he had fled or he didn't want to be found. The first was more obvious as there were no freak accidents or any useless casualties among the search squads.

Hinata's chest had ached the entire time, deeply praying this was some kind of bad dream but secretly hoping in her wildest fantasies that she would eventually return from her hunt to find him cooped up in the Hokage's Tower receiving an earful about his childish behavior.

It would be mediocre punishments, to suspend him from missions for a month or keep him under house arrest and possible constant surveillance. Everyone would eventually come to forgive him and life would continue on as it always had.

No such luck.

Two weeks went by unnoticed and still no word. The searching became more sporadic and less and less until no one else was sent on these fruitless missions to find the village's number one loud and surprising ninja.

His name was stricken from the record and placed on the S-Class criminal's list. Hinata knew that if this wasn't as serious as it was being made out to be, Naruto would have been flattered he was ranked right up there with the former Akatsuki members and...

Uchiha Sasuke.

One page in front, last name beginning with the same character, and just three months older.

In the days that passed before his unannounced arrival, Hinata had been assigned gate guard duty. The often-coveted position by the lazy yet hated assignment for the hyperactive. She had spent three late afternoons sitting in a fold up plastic chair with a roster of names pinned to a clipboard in front of her.

From noon till night, nothing had been out of the ordinary. Genin teams returning from out of the village low rank missions, an occasional anbu member here and there, flashing their brand and flipping her a permissive scroll.

Nothing special. Nothing at all.

So on Wednesday, when the sun was high, and the heat was sweltering, and her little electric fan was doing nothing to cool her outside of her light weight jacket, she barely thought twice asking for the stranger's name as he walked right by.

His shadow was thin and long, completely stretched by the midday's sun.

"Name and purpose?" she vaguely recalled asking, tone polite and demure as she fanned herself with a scrap piece of paper.

He did not respond, his long hair weeping down his back, thick and black and all unkempt.

"Name and purpose please?" she asked one more time, sitting straighter in her chair for some reason, her wrist suddenly stopping. He wore awfully dark colors for such warm weather.

His shoulders squared, and she heard him release a breath.

"Uchiha..."

She dropped her homemade fan and stood faster than she meant to, completely toppling her chair.

"Uchiha Sasuke," he coolly said, a slight crane in his neck as he eyed her over his left shoulder.

"Welcome back..." she heard herself say, the same line to greet any returning Konoha ninja.

----

end chapter one.


	2. Two

**Title:** A Likeness  
**Chapter:** Two  
**Author's Note:** none

----

Upon entering the Hidden Village of the Leaf, Sasuke had reintroduced himself, nearly caused a heart attack, and then promptly asked for directions to the Hokage's Tower. Hinata didn't think it was for a good will visit; she slammed the emergency call button underneath her desk and jumped the gap between herself and him.

It didn't matter that she was the only person standing in between him and the rest of Konoha. It didn't matter that he could probably outmatch her abilities and kill her without so much as an effort exerted on his behalf.

But that also didn't matter because she would do anything to protect the people she loved.

Her determination had grown over the past five years; she was no longer a sniveling little twelve year old, awkward and senseless and all other kinds of foolish when you're just a kid.

Her stance was now flawless, practiced and perfect the way her older cousin Neji had instructed it to be. With palms flat and forward facing, she stared hard into his emotionless face.

"Do you welcome everyone this way?" came his witty retort, as he turned to face her more fully. He didn't give off the same kind of intent she thought she remembered him having when they were younger. The only other time she'd seen him since his disappearance all those years ago, when Naruto...

"What're you doing here?" she became angry and accusing.

"I'm here for my own reasons. None of which involve you."

Hinata tensed her mouth to keep from saying anything she'd later regret.

"Uchiha Sasuke, as a shinobi of the Hidden Village of Konoha, and as a loyal servant to the Fire Country and its people, I'm going to have to take you into custody. A wanted high class ranking nin such as yourself is too dangerous to be let loose anywhere."

He waited and said nothing. Did nothing as she slowly approached him.

She lowered her hands if only slightly to snatch a kunai from her leg holster and twirl it in her right hand before pointing it's sharp edge at his throat.

"Come with me," she instructed.

The voice spilling from her lips was not her own. She didn't recognize it.

He nodded and didn't move, again waiting for her.

Two other Konoha ninja appeared behind them, just a few feet from the open village's gates. They looked to be chunnin, Hinata held herself responsible.

"H-hinata-san!" one of them yelled out, recognizing her captive from somewhere in a bingo book.

"Watch the gates and do not let anyone else past you," she breathed out orders quickly and nodded in a general direction towards the center of the village. The other nin watched in silence as she escorted Sasuke towards the Hokage's Tower by herself.

Her expected response from him, to say that it didn't matter how they got there, just that they did, never came. He walked side by side with her the entire way, even as she pressed the kunai closer and closer into the soft flesh of his throat.

--

A few weeks after Hinata had deposited him in the Hokage's office, completely defenseless with his _could care less _attitude, she finally caught sight of him again, skulking around with the other shadows in the marketplace.

He was unescorted, completely oblivious, but cleaned up since the last time she'd laid eyes on him.

His hair had been cut, ruffled and sticking up on all ends from the base of his neck and higher, much more suited to him than the mane he'd wandered in with. His clothes were plain and dull colored, nothing about him said he was an Uchiha or a traitor.

He went about his quiet business inspecting some fruit at a stand as she cautiously walked over to him. Sasuke didn't directly look at her or acknowledge her in any way. He just ignored her and picked an apple from the second tier tray to turn it slowly in his hand before placing it in the plastic bag he was carrying.

She waited a few minutes in silence for him to say something, anything. But he didn't and it unnerved her to no end, made her feel even more uncomfortable. This whole situation had already been awkward from the start since she had approached him first.

"Are you just going to stand there and look stupid?" he eventually asked her, walking over to the small stand's owner looking to drop some coins in his hand. Hinata bit her tongue and watched. The older man sneered and pocketed his hand for Sasuke to drop the money in the dirt.

"Keep it and get out," the owner replied warily.

He remembered.

Sasuke snorted mutely and shrugged his shoulders.

"Suit yourself."

With that he turned around and began to walk out of the market district.

Hinata quickly followed but only after handing some bills to the store keep. The owner not accepting money for his services was just as bad as Sasuke stealing. He'd meant well in all truthful intention, traitor or not. A few dollars were nothing.

Sasuke had kept a moderate pace, but it would seem he had been lagging, waiting. She caught up to him before they exited the busiest section of town.

The sun was getting ready to set in the west and the faint glow it cast on the Village was lovely. Made their meeting look altogether like something it was not.

"We can't be friends," she abruptly told him, hands hidden in her sleeves.

The words made him pause. He looked at her strangely for a moment, disregarded the comment and then continued walking. She stopped this time.

"You came all this way after me to tell me that?" he sounded genuinely surprised, but kept his gaze trained forward.

She began walking again, her gait widened and she was right back at his side.

"What if I did?" she challenged, her resolve to be here, to hate him suddenly not so strong. As much as Hinata wanted to deny it, Naruto was still living in her... and for some reason it seemed only right to want to see Sasuke if it was the only way she could continue to relive her last crush.

The past month without him had been so barren... so dry and empty of emotion.

But Sasuke... he made her feel, feel something; anger was a start. She could hate him for the pure unadulterated reason anyone could blindly hate. Prejudice. It was her very own personal justification and it was good enough.

Sasuke was Sasuke and Sasuke was probably the reason that Naruto had left.

But this encounter also made her feel hope, and it was strange to feel this way with the renowned Uchiha Sasuke of all people. Yet she did, and in some weird twisted but logical way it made sense.

Because if Sasuke were so intent to stay here, almost suddenly and out of nowhere like every spontaneous thing she could ever recall from Naruto over the past couple years, then maybe one day Naruto might come back of his own will too.

Maybe... she stopped her daydreaming.

They were walking to a more deserted portion of town. It was darker suddenly and the sun was not completely set, but it was behind them.

He stopped walking again and sighed lightly. The small plastic bag of fruit in his grip made a noise, crisp and starchy. Hinata swallowed loudly and no longer was she so sure that following Sasuke was the best plan of action.

"I don't want friends," he grimly responded, still refusing to look at her. "I don't need them."

He sounded so serious, so resolved. She almost wanted to see his face as he said this to her.

"Glad I haven't troubled you," and he was walking again. Walking away from her and into his old home, through the faded gates and weather worn symbols of his family's pride. Where tonight the cobwebs and his own sense of isolation would keep him company like they had for the past couple years.

Hinata grimaced at his back before looking away and walking in the direction they had just come from.

The last rays of the sun touched her face and she realized that she'd felt cold before.

--

Hinata saw Sakura the next day.

It was almost too much irony for her to bear, and she had to keep herself from bursting into tears by focusing on Sakura's beautiful face.

They had all grown up of course, it was no surprise that the other girl would finally bloom and match the outward appearance of her name. But Sakura... even in agony and suffering, she was still a sight to behold.

Hinata told her so.

"Oh come on Hinata, you don't need to flatter me," Sakura laughed easily and smiled friendly. She was still in her hospital garb, must have been fresh out of work within the past hour or so.

"In fact, it should be me complimenting you on your beauty," Sakura winked in that flirty way of hers and giggled when Hinata's face reflexively heated up. "So how have you been doing otherwise?"

Hinata nodded subtlety and willed her face into a more acceptable color. "I'm all right. Trying to keep busy. Still training."

Sakura nodded.

"I wish I had more time to train myself physically. With all the hospital work we've been receiving lately from outside the Village... all those people who want to be treated here... all the research Tsunade-shisou keeps piling on my desk... I just haven't had much time outside to myself."

It was common knowledge that since Naruto's disappearance, Team Seven was no longer active on the missions roster, and had since then been dispersed under direct order of the Hokage herself. Tsunade had felt that without a complete three man cell of equally matched and well-suited shinobi there was no longer any need to find replacements.

It was basically her way of saying no one could replace Naruto.

Sakura, Kakashi, nor Sai had disagreed.

And since then Sakura's only formal work came in the shape of her spending all her time at the hospital. Hinata knew it probably wasn't healthy but if delving yourself into your profession was how you coped with the pain and suffering of losing someone dear to you... she almost pitied Sakura.

"Yeah," Hinata quietly waited for her friend to continue.

"And well you know whenever I do get out," she made it sound like a prison, "I end up getting kidnapped and spend all my time with friends and family you know?"

"Family is important," Hinata added.

Sakura laughed and went on to asking Hinata about her own family.

"Hanabi's progressing well, Father wants her to participate in the chunnin exams this year. Father is... well Father. And Neji's enjoying his gennin team more than he thought he would."

"Heh yeah you're cousin comes off as a grump when you first meet him, but I'm sure he's a great teacher."

Hinata nodded and let Sakura do most of the talking from there on out.

"Say, what are you doing tomorrow afternoon, are you free?"

Pale eyes focused back from confusion and Sakura smiled. "We could continue this conversation then maybe? I'm just in a little bit of a hurry you see and should probably be getting back home shortly. I promised not to be late to dinner tonight."

Hinata blinked.

"Again..." Sakura guiltily admitted by rapping her knuckles off her head.

Hinata softly returned the smile and agreed that lunch would nice if her friend was up for it. Sakura was more than willing to accept the invitation and they settled on a small café down the street from the Hokage's Tower. They would meet around one or so, have a nice cup of tea or two and maybe a light meal.

It would be good to catch up Sakura had said, but she hadn't mentioned Sasuke.

Hinata watched the other kunoichi walk away from her with heavy uncertain steps and a frail sense of comfort. Would it actually be all right?

She felt bad suddenly when all she could think about was Naruto.

--

The next day came much quicker than any that week had. Went by even faster than that one eventful Wednesday weeks ago.

Before noon Hinata found herself wandering the streets near the café. She had left early, much more early than need actually be, but it would have felt wrong to wait until the last minute in the Hyuuga compound any way.

It was excellent reasoning. She just hadn't meant to see him again.

Uchiha Sasuke it seemed had taken to walks in the market district everyday. She could only infer as much as she caught him doing the same things he'd been about only two days prior. Trying his hardest to blend in with civilian people, ignoring the nasty looks occasionally sent his way, and sampling random items from vendor to vendor.

It was... awkward.

He looked awkward.

Hinata had never been the kind to openly stare but it was just too out of place to let it go. She settled for watching him from a distance and checked the corner café every couple minutes. No reason to keep Sakura waiting, especially not since she had been the first one here.

Just when she thought she'd caught a glimpse of candy-pink hair and a dazzling white lab coat, some one walked up behind her.

She spun around.

"S-sasu-uke-san," she stuttered out, a habit she had since learn to give up from adolescence. It only ever made itself known again in situations of extreme discomfort or anxiety.

"Is there some reason I keep seeing you?" he asked bluntly, some kind of vexed look in his dark, dark eyes.

The expression was unnatural coming from him; it was not quite amused but not overly peeved. Hinata stepped away from him timidly and smoothed out the wrinkles in her jacket from breathing too heavily too suddenly.

"It must be some kind of cosmic joke," she chided his suspicion with sarcasm she didn't even know she had in her. And he nodded at her response, tipping his neck up in a direction over her shoulder.

"Certainly not as funny as this next one," and Hinata knew exactly what was going to happen before it even did.

"Hello Sakura."

He said her name so fluidly; so deep and luxurious in a way that would have had any girl melting down into the soles of her shoes. It couldn't have had a more opposite effect.

"H-hinata..." Sakura breathed out, dropping her small pink clutch purse from her numb fingers.

The forest green in her eyes became hazy for a second and her lips moved numbly as she tried to connect thoughts to words, but the conveyor belt never made it to her throat.

In Hinata's defense, she had never meant for this to happen. If Sakura had wanted to meet Sasuke, wouldn't she have already? Wouldn't she have mentioned his return and been somewhat enthused? Wouldn't she...? Wouldn't she be more open to talking about...?

"You..." and words finally came.

Sasuke stepped closer to Hinata and gave her some sort of sympathy seeking glance. Mercy was about to be wasted on him and all she did was stare expectantly back.

"You son of a bitch!"

The curse echoed in the open market and time seemed to have stopped.

Hinata briefly recalled the one-second when Sasuke was at her side, and the one immediately after when he had landed ten feet away on his backside, skidded marks of his sudden flight etched into the dirt.

He was bleeding from his mouth and his jaw now sat at some disconcerting angle. He turned to spit something out into the dirt next to him and didn't even bother to get up. His small plastic bagged groceries lay scattered on the ground before Sakura and her clenched right fist.

She was panting heavily, looked half crazy and no longer beautiful in anger.

"If I... no... I..." she couldn't form words any more.

Hinata kept quiet but frowned, a look nowhere near familiar on her face.

Sasuke finally moved to get up, put his hands on either side of himself and pushed until he was in a sitting position. Then with a small amount of force on his upper thighs he was settled on his feet. His bottom lip was split and the blood was bright red on his white teeth.

It made Hinata want to wince but she felt she shouldn't get involved. Instead she walked calmly over to Sakura, placed a gentle hand on her friends back and slowly guided her away from the scene she'd created. People stared the entire time, as though this were some sort of sick and fascinating show.

Hinata felt queasy and no longer in the mood for lunch.

"Come on Sakura... let's go."

And her friend's feet eventually moved, unglued themselves from their angry position and they both left Sasuke to pick up his ruined groceries with his more than likely broken jaw.

No one said anything at all and for a while Sakura didn't speak.

They forewent the café and instead Hinata found herself wandering around the back courtyard of the hospital instead. It was really beautiful; she guessed Ino had played some sort of superficial role in helping design its layout. Sakura and her were good friends now so it only made sense.

"I'm sorry Hinata," a soft apology came from the left of her.

Hinata felt horrible enough already.

"You... you don't have to be sorry. I-"

"No... I'm so sorry Hinata, for the way I acted, for ruining our lunch. I just..."

Hinata frowned for a second time and shook her head, "No, you have nothing to apologize for."

Sakura bit her lip and stopped walking. They were back in front of the rear entrance to the hospital; her lunch break was probably long since over.

"I just don't know what came over me. I don't know why I acted the way I did. There's no reason... it's no excuse. I..."

"You don't have to explain yourself," Hinata assured her, a hand on her jacket sleeve. "You have every justification for your actions. No one blames you."

Sakura nodded slowly, her bright eyes welling with tears.

"I-I have to go," she sheepishly remarked, carefully removing Hinata's hand and stepping hastily in through the hospital's doors.

"Thank you Hinata. I'm glad... I'm glad you were there."

And the sterile silver doors clicked shut behind her. Hinata didn't want to think that Sakura had only left her because she needed to cry this out, but her friend's business was just that.

The emptiness of having to be silent about your own pain just made her feel that much worse. She walked away discreetly and headed in the direction of her home.

Vaguely along the way, did she begin to understand how Uchiha Sasuke's sense of humor worked. It was only funny if you knew what was going to happen next.

----

end chapter two.


	3. Three

**Title:** A Likeness  
**Chapter: **Three  
**Author's Note:** none

----

A few days went by and there was still no word from Sakura. Hinata wouldn't have been so bothered if their last meeting hadn't ended so brutally, but it had and there was nothing she could do about it.

Today was now Monday; the accident had happened just before the weekend.

While walking down the lesser-crowded streets of Konoha, towards the ninja academy, with some jutsu scrolls piled under her arms and in the small rucksack slung around her torso, she thought about Sasuke.

Some part of her wanted to feel pity for him. Truly did, in that naïve and pure sort of way.

Hinata had always been like a bleeding heart, or so her teammates often told her. Always calling out to any and all who suffered, no matter what the cause or why the purpose. Kurenai-sensei even admitted to her on one occasion it could quite possibly be her only shortcoming.

Caring too much for no reason at all. Without any justification or functional meaning.

Yet despite her long track record of mercy for the pitiful and the retched, she just couldn't bring herself to openly grieve for Sasuke or his loses. He didn't want it that way, or so it would seem. And she wasn't in the mood for head games or second-guessing; so she figured she'd leave him to his own devices and let him settle his personal demons on his own terms.

A lot of his own rules and his problems.

They were his own weren't they?

She was more than happy to keep all that general empathetic nonsense to herself.

The journey from the library to the front registration desk was at most a fifteen-minute walk. Iruka-sensei had requested a couple of low-level education texts on simple genjutsu and ninjutsu. Hinata could only guess it was because the final exams were coming up in spring for the oldest students.

It made her cheeks warm slightly and her mouth up turn when she thought of how nervous she'd been for the jutsu portion of her test.

But she had passed it easily, reflexively like she'd practiced all week prior to it.

Though Naruto had, naturally, failed it... but with grace no doubt.

And of course that had been a complete downer for her. To see him have his dreams crushed like that. It had made her want to succeed for him even more when she heard the news.

But when it turned out that Umino Iruka was a nice enough man to end up passing Naruto in the end, when the little gennin had courageously laid his own life on the line to protect their academy teacher, of course driven was no longer a word to describe her enthusiasm.

Not one student went through those doors without hearing about how a complete and utter failure as a student could turn right around and become one of the most exemplary ninja in all the course of that academy's history.

Hinata was proud.

It was just a shame that Naruto wasn't there to hear more about it. He would have gone on and on forever with his big joking ego...

Hinata slowly untucked every scroll from underneath her arms one by one and placed them in order on the desk before her. She did it mechanically and efficiently. The receptionist gave her a small smile when the heavy pack of books, much too full to stack or carry by hand, was placed on top of the scroll pile.

Hinata barely heard the small thank you given to her.

"Y-you're welcome," she nodded, suddenly more aware of her surroundings.

It was becoming a bad habit of hers to randomly space out like that. It was careless and completely unprofessional.

She promised it would not happen again.

"Please tell Umeko-san we always appreciate it when she lends out the public library texts. Konoha's ninja academy would not be where it is today without wonderful record keepers like her," the receptionist said, her face gentle and her words kind.

Hinata nodded, "I sure will."

"The books will be returned by next week, thank you very much and here's the slip for you to turn into the Hokage's office for payment."

Hinata took the offered slip with some hesitance and then bid farewell to the lady in the little office. Her mission for today was now complete.

When she finally stepped back outside, the sun was warmer and it showed on a building's clock that the hour hand was now somewhere past one. Around high noon... she looked down at the thin pink slip in her hands, slightly crumpled at the edges where she'd mistreated it with her grip.

Money meant nothing for something so trivial. She didn't take these missions for recognition nor pay. The paper felt heavier suddenly and someone pushed right past her.

"Odd to keep seeing you around here," came a cold, indifferent voice.

It made her curl her toes in her sandals and worry the paper between her fingers even more.

"Same can be said about you," she acknowledged him but did not offer any name recognition. They were not friends, could not be friends; would not be friends.

"I thought you had already learned about the dangers of the marketplace the last time you shopped here. Back for more?"

Her remark was effortless, cool and aimed low. She never knew she could have the courage to say those kinds of things to another human being, but apparently spending too much time around Kiba was finally taking its toll... or paying off.

Depended on how you looked at it.

"I'll take my chances," he replied, looking over his shoulder once to eye her warily.

Even though she had not been the cause of his mutilated face, which was still quite bruised and still rather swollen about the lower left portion of his jaw, it was obvious he didn't trust her.

Hinata felt similar distrust.

"Well then a good day unto you," she dipped her head, not as a bow in a show of respect, but as a polite way to excuse herself. Even though her last words to him were sarcastic, he smirked through the pain of fractured bone just the same as she walked away from him in the open market.

--

When she managed to make it back to the Hokage's Missions Office unscathed, she found Hatake Kakashi sitting lazily behind the receptionist desk. It was apparent that not just the lower level nin were hurting for work.

"Yo," he waved her over in his long low drawl, eyes still glued to the most fascinating novel of the adult variety. Hinata had heard from Naruto and Sakura on multiple occasions that their teacher was as much a pervert as the legendary bath peeper, but she still feigned innocence until he was otherwise proven guilty.

Besides, fine reading material was what you made of it, or so Kurenai-sensei would finally have to fess up to all those Cosmos her students knew she kept hidden under her bed. Hinata felt the tips of her ears heat up when he giggled quietly at a particularly naughty part.

"Uh uhm, Kakashi-san, I've completed my assigned mission for today."

"Oh?" he sounded kind of interested but wasn't looking directly at her. She could feel his stare through the book all the same and hesitantly stepped forward.

"And how was it?"

"Just a quick delivery of some scrolls and texts to the academy. Nothing strenuous."

He nodded and snapped the book shut by removing his half-gloved index finger from inside the spine.

"I guess that means tests are coming up soon, new gennin..." his single eye crinkled at the edges.

From some random acquaintance, she couldn't particularly recall whom; she had heard rather juicy gossip about this year being the reinstatement of Hatake Kakashi's teaching license. The school system had expanded over the past couple years and now the small handful of their recognized jounin teachers were no longer sufficient enough to keep up with the growing student body.

To Hinata it had seemed unusual that he would accept the offer to teach again, because he hadn't raised a group of gennin since the renown Team Seven.

It was going to be difficult for him to come to terms with that, there was no doubt in her mind. Because time was not kind to ninja, neither physically nor mentally, Kakashi was nearly in his mid-thirties. Three wily, squirmy children were going to keep him busy for a long time... if they passed their teamwork trials...

But most of all Hinata felt that seeing new students replace your old ones was the most painful of all. It was one of the main reasons she refused to take up teaching or mentoring. She knew she wouldn't be able to handle the circumstances of losing her gennin team; either in or out of her attentive gaze, the dangers of their so-called profession, would make sure death found each and every one of them.

She was far too sentimental of a person.

"Yes," she nodded, "I'm very certain that's why the school requested so many low level jutsu technique scrolls and chakra training manuals."

Kakashi nodded as well and she wondered if he was actually smiling beneath his mask.

"You're a chunnin level ninja are you not?" he openly asked her.

She swallowed hard before answering.

"Y-yes I've been a chunnin for quite some time." It was not an embarrassment to still be a chunnin; she had repeated this to herself over and over every morning for the past three years.

"Will you be participating in the jounin exams this year?"

Hinata stood still in front of him, but her teeth were clenched behind her closed lips.

"I don't think so, maybe next year."

"Ah, yes there's always next year."

No one ever meant to be rude when they asked her this; they only wanted the best for her. And while she was an excellent chunnin, at the level of skill in her justsu that she could easily become a jounin, she still passed up every opportunity ever handed to her.

Compassion like hers would make it hard to survive the rigor and trials of becoming a full jounin with stout loyalty to her village. Hinata did not seek chaos, but instead sought to right it. She could never kill anyone without reason, had never once had to take the life of another living person in any of her present duties.

And in her mind, she could keep a clean slate if she just kept herself uninvolved at all costs.

"Well then," Kakashi pushed aside the uncomfortable banter his curiosity had led them to and got down to business. "How about that completion slip?"

He held out his hand expectantly and Hinata delivered.

The pale pink paper was crumpled crudely from her ministrations, and she felt like a careless child handing in abused homework to a perfectionist teacher. She had always been a good student while enrolled in the academy; this situation was only slightly disconcerting.

But if the copy-nin was bothered, he said nothing and unfolded it like some intricate piece of origami.

"All right then, ten ryou?"

He asked her this question as though she were the one to decide the amount. Nothing significant about ten marks... he took out the stamp that signified completion and tacked it against the slip five times, as was expected of bureaucratic business employees because this office was a place of business first and foremost.

A register chimed as it opened and Hinata watched him expertly fish out and count her pay.

"Eight, nine, ten ryou," and he held it out to her.

Her not shaking hand took the money.

"Konoha thanks you for your services."

"I am happy to have been of service to the village."

--

The money felt wrong in her hand.

Briefly she considered offering it back to Kakashi still sitting behind the desk. But she had a feeling the older nin wouldn't allow her return this pay.

In Konoha's mindset, work was work was work. And if you did work, you received pay directly correlated to the amount of effort you put forth.

But monetary earnings held no interest if you already had a wealthy clan to back you up.

Hinata's fingers dipped into her coat pocket and brushed past the ten marked bills there. Despite everything she'd been taught as a kid, working hard on missions to save up her own hard-earned money, unlike all those other times, this refused to feel right.

It could have been because she had only completed a lowly D rank mission, right along side the scroll list of baby-sitting for gennin graduates, or maybe it was because she finally realized after this most recent encounter with Hatake Kakashi that she was suddenly very incapable of greater things.

Most people went their whole lives being nobody important, contributing nothing significant back to the world around them. She bit her lip and caught herself before she could reminisce about a love never pursued.

She had promised herself... and she had promised him that she would never be a nobody again.

And she hadn't been.

She made chunnin as readily as any other kunoichi in her class that same year so long ago. Even her stoic father had praised her technique on a few occasions and most if not all of her family could openly regard her for her quiet will to endure.

But where she had come to a stop not long after, seemingly pleased with her life and the way things continually progressed, others had continued onward and succeeded beyond even her greatest achievements.

She felt stuck in a rut suddenly and it bothered her. Didn't make her quite angry but certainly left her with a bought of depression not easy to overcome with simple phrases like, 'cheer up' or 'just do your best.'

Like just scraping by and just doing your best to hang in there was no longer enough for her. And the very thought of that made her feel stagnant.

What more could she do now? She had been happy, truly happy... and now her world was slowly coming apart at the seams from a persistently picked at thread.

Walking the long trail home, the still dirt path smoothed down from years of walks into town, she entertained thoughts of what if and began to question silent resolves.

--

"How was your day daughter?" Hisashi sipped tea quietly from his cup in the study.

Dinner had come and gone, the main house members clearing out first and the branch members then taking their places, only to exit all over again until tomorrow when the two phases would repeat and breakfast would be served.

They never ate together.

"Hinata..." he said her voice lowly and she picked up her hung head. Her father had suggested they move to the study for some tea, on what grounds or for what purpose she still wasn't certain.

"It was all right," she told him, hands folded neatly in her lap. They were seated at a low table with soft pillows placed on the matted floors to spare their knees any ache. The tea served was hot and smelled faintly of chamomile.

Hinata repressed a shiver and mentioned how she had retrieved various texts for the academy students and dropped them off. Hisashi nodded slowly and she knew he was remembering her and her youngest sister back when they had been enrolled as students too.

"It doesn't seem like time can go by that fast," she finished, her eyes moving from one object to the next in the large and abundantly furnished room. Bookcases and paintings, parchments and family crests... everything hung and situated neatly in the study.

Her father nodded and placed his empty cup on the table.

"No, no it doesn't." His wide brow furrowed and deepened and he reached over for the teapot. Hinata's hand made it there first and she proceeded to lift the little ceramic only to be stopped by her father's much larger hand wrapping round the delicate flesh of her wrist.

"Let me," he instructed and she put the teapot back down watching him instead.

Hisashi grabbed an empty cup from the collection on the tray a servant had brought them only minutes before. His fingers had been choosy and the light lavender one with white lilies hand painted on the side found its way in front of her. She remained still as her father served her tea for once, like she was a little girl all over again.

"When you get older..." he began, finally placing the teapot back down on the warming plate," it happens more and more often than your heart can stand."

She felt her throat tighten but out of sheer dignity and polite fashion she willed her cold fingertips to close around the steaming hot cup.

"Thank you Father."

"You are welcome my eldest daughter."

----

end chapter three.


	4. Four

**Title:** A Likeness**  
Chapter: Four****  
Author's Note:** You're surprised, aren't you? Now pick your jaw up off the floor - this has been written for two and half years.

----

When she woke the next morning it felt like every other day. She hung her head in almost shame. It shouldn't have been a surprise to find that no sort of miraculous change had happened overnight. Nothing would ever be that simple, ever come that easy.

She pushed her covers back, the light cotton kind that were fairly inexpensive on her family's budget and gathered her clothes for the new day before heading over to the bathroom. A hot shower could wash away most anything, just not something that stained as dark as blood.

She didn't have much planned after the mission's office sent her back out onto the street wanting.

"No work today, Hyuuga-san!" a scarred man had said, picking shyly at the mark across the bridge of his nose. Iruka-sensei always tried to fit her in no matter how low the calls for missions might be. No team had been truly busy in the longest time.

"Maybe try back tomorrow? I'll see if I can't dig something up..."

She nodded and bowed politely before descending the few steps that put her across from the marketplace. A psuedo-nostalgic feeling washed over her as she watched a woman picking through the fruits and vegetables bin just a couple of meters ahead. Her fist ached and yet she remembered she hadn't been the one doing the abuse, causing the scene those couple of days ago.

It must be the boredom, it has to be the heat... she told herself, it wasn't any sort of pity and it most certainly wasn't sympathetic affection.

Something snuck behind her and ruffled the trim of her coat's right sleeve.

"I thought we already talked about how it's completely uncouth of you to be following me so openly in public," words like a river were flowing out of her mouth. She just knew it was him.

"Don't flatter yourself," he sneered at the back of her head, and she sucked on her teeth to keep from making any expression.

"I'd assume with such banter you must be feeling better by now." She finally turned her head to look just faintly over her shoulder.

His eyes were dark and flat, black and nothing overly emotional. His jaw, though still bruised, didn't look half bad. And vaguely she began to understand how, when they'd been children in the academy, his looks had made other girls fawn endlessly over him. They had done that regularly anyway but most prominently whenever he'd been injured during a mission. That forlorn and deject expression... completely screamed, 'pity me,' even if that wasn't the sort of message he was trying to get across.

"Much better," he indicated her stare's focus and his eyes crinkled at the corners ever so slightly.

"Yes, well, then don't let me impede you," she made to move away from him then, something about his foot getting in her way caused her to stop.

"What are you doing?" she asked, not sure if she was at all angry or just unwittingly surprised. This was not how you played the game. She recalled Naruto, she remembered Kiba... but they weren't anything like Sasuke.

"Have lunch with me," he told her, no such thing as a request from the likes of him.

"I beg your pardon...?"

Had he stuttered? Had he lost his mind?

"I don't like to owe debts," he explained, "but I will not beg, and I won't offer again."

"Debts..." she repeated, and without another word followed him half dizzy and half mad down the street. Hinata knew what incident he was referring to.

--

They were seated quickly and as far away from the doorway as humanly possible. A dark corner in the teashop, someplace respectful and private and yet not so public as to let the entire village know they were serving a traitor.

Hinata blamed it on her last name, and folded her hands neatly in her lap.

What was this? What was going on between them? Had she lost her mind? A menu tapped the fabric of her coat against her upper arm. She took the laminated scrap of paper with one hand and thanked him without words.

Her stomach was unsettled enough that she didn't really feel up to eating, but a few cups of tea maybe and that could suffice. Half expectantly she was hoping for him to say something, anything ungentlemanly so she had some semblance of an excuse to leave, just walk out.

But he was a perfect partner, waited quietly until she'd read once and then twice the entire menu, both front and back. He didn't complain and his patience seemed limitless. Hinata felt herself becoming anxious.

A skittish waiter wandered by to take their orders and Hinata handed him the menu requesting the houses own brewed black tea. Sasuke affirmed that he would have the same, and the waiter bowed before taking his leave.

"You don't seem like a black tea person to me, the flavor is strong."

She eyed him slowly and when he finally met her gaze, she looked away again.

"And what exactly were you expecting?"

He shrugged, and she noticed he was wearing something completely out of place. A black v-necked top with no sleeves, tucked loosely into his equally dark shinobi pants. Very similar to the same thing he'd been wearing the day he re-entered the village.

The look was too sharp, too much black on someone so pale and she realized he had been purposefully trying to stand out.

His muscles were lean, not at all bulky or hardened. He looked soft, like any unsuspecting civilian, and she fidgeted when she caught herself staring for too long.

"I don't really know..." he told her truthfully.

And the waiter returned with a boiling pot of black tea, two cups and made to serve the lady, only to be stopped by a raised hand. He dropped his checkbook and backed away hastily.

"It's fine," Sasuke told the man, not offering any sort of apology.

The waiter left without another word and Hinata watched Sasuke reach onto the tray left behind to carefully place a worn teacup in front of her. The porcelain had obviously seen better days but it still held a kind of appealing shine to it as he went about pouring her some tea.

His movements were graceful and Hinata thought that if maybe Naruto were here he would have made a joke about how Sasuke would make a lovely housewife someday... but the comment never came and she felt so little like she had a few minutes before.

He dipped the pot back ever so slightly before pouring himself a cup and then returned the still heated teapot back to the tray. The silence was so loud between them.

Steam rolled off the dark surface of the tea in her cup and she watched it lazily, not expecting anything more, just the simple company he was seemingly offering her out of nowhere.

"White tea," he said offhandedly, taking a quick sip from his cup before placing it back down.

"I am not nearly as transparent," she quietly replied, finally beginning to drink from her cup.

"Be a shame if you were," he said at last, reaching over to pour her another round, which she all but downed as quickly as the first. This wasn't a drinking contest, and he slightly raised his eyebrow as he told her this. But she drank every cup just as fast as he managed to pour them.

She needed to get away from him.

Lightly setting the fine porcelain back down for the fifth and final time, only moving it out of his way so as not to receive another helping of murky leafed water, Hinata reached down into the recesses of her pockets.

This had been a mistake. What had ever possessed her to think this could have ended well? She didn't know, but lately he'd been making her feel things that were uncustomary of someone in her current position.

He was being nice and it frightened her. What had she ever done...?

Nothing, she told herself, I want nothing.

Some coins clicked loudly on the table as she stood up, her hands were hidden deep in the fabric of her sleeves.

Sasuke didn't necessarily say anything after that, but she could tell he was trying hard not to glare. He wasn't succeeding. Her paying for their bill again only debted him more, and it would only make him that much more hostile the next time they encountered one another.

She didn't know if that's how she wanted it or not, but maybe things would make better sense if that were how they learned to approach each other from now on. No false hopes, no unrealistic dreams of the future and most certainly no friendship.

She bid him farewell with what were said to be the finest manners of any main house family member. But before she passed him, his hand had found it's way around her wrist. It felt so much bigger than her own, like her father's grip, hard and worn.

Warm, she thought.

"You shouldn't try so hard," Hinata looked away from him. Her wrist was aching in his grasp and yet he wasn't hurting her at all.

Sasuke opened his mouth to say something and she rudely interrupted him, "you shouldn't try at all."

He clicked it shut there after, the tension lines his father had once been famous for apparent at the down turned corners of his mouth.

Neither of them paid attention to the small crowd on looking the entire scene. Hinata prayed that this incident wouldn't make it back to her house before she had time to undo the damage.

"What do you think making peace with people who hate you could possibly accomplish? How do you think they'd ever forgive you? After what you've done..." she trailed off and he let her go.

She couldn't look at him after that, and he didn't say anything to her as she walked away from him, went right through the open door after thanking the hostess for the tea.

Their timid waiter approached Sasuke and quietly asked if he would comply to leave now that their bill was paid and there was no one other than him to serve. Sasuke paid him no mind and absently counted the money on the table.

Ten marks, more than enough to pay for their bill.

It was like she was trying to rub it in.

He reached across the table and grabbed her cooling teacup, flicking any remaining contents off to the side of the table. The waiter backed way quickly, the only thing he was good at was being meek. Sasuke stood and no one said anything as he strode out the door without so much as a word.

There had been nothing enjoyable about this meeting.

"You shouldn't try..." he mocked, examining her teacup in his hand.

He had always known that making peace like this with people he only partially knew, or in Hinata's case, had never really known at all, wasn't going to be easy. But Kakashi was just so damn persistent... and he was a liar too because this wasn't making him feel any better at all.

Why did he need to go out of his way to learn again and again just why people hated him? He sneered and put the cup in one of his pockets to keep from throwing it angrily at the ground or breaking it senselessly in his hand.

'_Now, now Sasuke_,' he could almost hear that one-eyed bastard chuckling in his ear, '_you need to learn to control that temper of yours..._'

Sakura was a lost cause. Things with her might never be right again without Naruto.

The Hokage could pardon him but she had yet to forgive him as well.

And Kakashi...? He was already hanging around in the most inconvenient places just to spite him. In fact, he'd been the person who had told him to apologize in the first place, in some way, shape or form to all these people, Hinata included. Why was his question and because was the fucking answer.

Sasuke grit his teeth.

He doubted any of this was worth it. He didn't even know why he was trying at all. But maybe it had something to do with him not being allowed on missions any more, and maybe it was because training was losing its edge.

But maybe, it was because he really needed this helpless kind of human contact after all these years... starved of it for so long and the one person who he knew would always give it to him, whether he wanted it or not, was no longer here.

'_You have to accept things when you can Sasuke_,' Kakashi had told him, his nose still buried in that same old tattered orange book. '_Accept them as they are and as often as you can_.'

"Che..." he steered away from the marketplace and walked down the rocky dirt path leading to his home. The Uchiha complex was still one of the furthest housing districts outside the village. He enjoyed the solitude during his walks.

To hell with company and misery loving it.

----

end chapter four.


End file.
